


Foolish Game

by ShatteredSwallowtail



Series: Second Sunrise [2]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, Genesis-verse, Second Sunrise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 20:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20552147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShatteredSwallowtail/pseuds/ShatteredSwallowtail





	Foolish Game

Title: Foolish Games  
Author:   
Fandom: Bleach  
Characters: Hirako Shinji II  
Theme: Play  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: While Bleach belongs to the wonderful and awesome Kubo-sensei, Shinji Jr. is mine. Don't steal him, or he'll come and kill you in your sleep. And he'll let Hiyourin help.

It's always a game to him, despite what others say about it, about how he should take things more seriously, about how he shouldn't be so reckless. At least, they say that until he calmly reminds them, in that drawling voice so like his father's, that not only is he not in any real danger, but that just because he chooses to do things in an unconventional manner it doesn't mean he still didn't graduate at the top of his class, outstripping most of them.

They don't generally like that, not just because they don't like to be reminded of their own shortcomings, but because when Shinji says things like that, it just reminds them of who he is. Of who's son he is, and beyond that, of _what_ he is. A Vaizard. Like his sister. Like his parents. Only, in so many ways, they say that this Shinji is even more dangerous than his father ever was, and it's because of his attitude. Because of the way he is alike yet different than either of his parents, of how his lackluster and oft-disinterested persona hides a mind of unbelievable cunning with the potential for deceptions and twists beyond even what his father might have once come up with.

There are some who even say he reminds them of Aizen.

As for Shinji, he doesn't really care either way. After all, it's just play. Just a game, a play of cat and mouse, just like so many other things in life. Not because he's cruel -- he is, at times -- or because there is something inherently wrong with him -- _they_ might disagree -- but simply because Shinji doesn't believe that a life lived halfway is a life worth living. Of what use is a mind if you don't use it to it's fullest. And in that sense, as he is one of their greatest sources of concern, he is also one of their greatest strategists, his limber and agile mind easily working circles around the best that they have to offer, until they can't deny that -- Vaizard though he is -- he has them all beat.

It's why Seireitei tries so hard to keep reins on him, despite his ease in throwing them off and going his own way. Like his mother, a part of V-Div and yet an independent, in spite of everything they try, and everything they demand. But then, he can warn them off easily enough, though his warning is always different than Hiyori's, more based on calculated risks and cheques and balances.

It unnerves his father, at times, the degree of cunning that his namesake -- and the spitting image of himself as a youth -- can come up with, seemingly unbidden, or the degree of calculated malice that can develop from it. Only, malice isn't really even the right word for it, because that would suggest that the younger Hirako is a cruel person by nature, which he isn't. He's simply calculating, brutal even, in the face of battle. Willing to make the sort of choices that most men shy away from, the sorts of choices that cost a life yet save so many more.

The sorts of choices that make one a brilliant leader.

Only, to Shinji it's still just a game. Cat and mouse, played between him and the Hollow, his mouth drawn into a wide grin eerily similar to the parent who gave it to him, chuckling slightly as he shrugs his long tail of blond hair over his shoulder and tosses his hat aside to raise an eyebrow at the Hollow, who is looking at him in a mix of astonishment and horror -- no doubt due to the shock of seeing what it assumed was a normal soul pulling out a zanpakutou -- as he peels the fake inga-no-kusari off of his chest with an almost cruel grin.

It's really not fair, the way he plays with them. The way he takes advantage of his cunning, luring them in with the promise of a good meal, deigning to even don shihakushou and preferring instead to simply take up the guise of a normal soul. Wandering around in the gigai he prefers, or even going so far as to discard it and wander as a shinigami, dressed in the garb of a typical soul with that fake chain his "uncle" gave him as a joke taped to his chest. But then, that's Shinji's style, after all. Cunning, calculation... and an almost twisted sense of glee at watching them fall into his trap, at seeing their shock as the curved fish-hook of his blade cleaves them easily in two.

But then, so few things in life are fair.

Or at least, that's Shinji's reasoning as he cleans the blood off of his blade and reseals it before working the kidou he uses to keep it in the form of an innocuous pocketknife. After all, what helpless little soul wanders around carrying a zanpakutou?


End file.
